One of the inspiring stories that came out of the recently concluded Winter Hackathon http://hackathoncentral.com in London was that of first year software engineering student Alejandro Saucedo.

He won the “off the Wall” category, one of the six main categories, for his mobile app, “Lost It”, <http://hackathoncentral.com/winners> a database-driven service to reunite people with their lost property.

He was the first to arrive for the two-day hack. He came bounding into Central Working at 8.00am, a gangly, smiling young man with his hand outstretched, “Hi, I’m Alejandro Saucedo and I’m here for the hackathon”.

Alejandro knew exactly what he wanted to do. He said his idea was to update the business of finding lost property.  To those like me who remember the nightmare of dealing with the old Lost and Found office at Baker Street this was an intriguing proposition.

Throughout the morning he attached himself to various groups and tried to get support for his idea, but he got no takers. So by mid-afternoon on Saturday he gave up and declared he’d do it on his own.

At 11 pm he said he had to return to Southampton and I teased him about not being able to last the course, but bright and early next morning he was back, full of energy and ready to rock and roll!

He did get some help from Rob Finean, a senior developer, and advice from Mark Tyers, Senior Developer at the Serious Games Institute, but essentially, the app is his sole creation.

Alejandro is 19 years old, barely 3 months into his degree course at Southampton University. Spanish is his native language, and he speaks fluent English, conversational Mandarin and basic level Portuguese.

A longer, more detailed graphic illustration of “Lost It” is here: http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/iasm1g11/LostItUni/Presentation/index.html.

We think young Alejandro has a bright future in the computing business.

*Milverton Wallace is the organizer of the Winter Hackathon.

Links:

Serious Games Institute <http://www.seriousgamesinstitute.co.uk>
Central Working <http://www.centralworking.com>

Our finance manager Debs and I were opening up a couple of bank accounts with our bank manager for a series of new companies we are launching as part of DLMplc.com. As part of the process we had to explain to her what it is we did. I said “We are a digital learning company” at this point she says, “well I have heard of e-learning, we have lots of that in our company. Basically a bunch of slides you have to read and then you click, click, click to get through the slides to the end of the course. We have to do them all the time on some compliance issue or other, what is digital learning then?”.

Now that is a key question…..and the click, click, click nature of e-learning is what worry’s me most about the learning industry today. How often have I heard people say they click, click, click just to get through the learning……………..

Before I answer the question of Digital Learning versus E-Learning I thought I would do a google search for something called the ‘Cone of Learning’  or ‘Cone of Experience’ a concept mooted by Edgar Dale an Educationalist who basically said after 2 weeks you retain 10% of what you read but 90% of what you have done.

(From www.NigelPaine.com – Thanks Nigel).

So further trawling on the internet and I find Nigel Paine – one of the top strategists on Leadership and Talent Development – wrote an article about this in 2008 (the above diagram is downloaded from Nigel’s website). He has been lecturing about the topic for many years. In fact we discussed the use of multi-media materials and story telling in learning when Nigel created the BBC Leadership curricula back in 2003 (ish).  

So the more I look among the experts, the more I see we have been saying the same thing for a long time about the need for active learning solutions, yet the industry still produces click, click, click type learning materials. Why? Lets stop. And let’s make engaging learning that makes a difference to the learner!

Back to my bank manager – I explained that Digital learning is all about active learning – its multimedia, personalized, engaging, informal, flexible, continuous, and shared. So by using a blend of games, simulations, online role plays, and social networking we are helping the next generation of employees, managers and entrepreneurs acquire skills quickly and effectively by making learning more engaging and by simply ‘doing’ it.

I explained that we are building active simulations and real life scenarios into learning using digital techniques and ensuring we can deliver that learning whenever and wherever it’s wanted or needed be it via the internet, or the myriad of mobile devices we use today.

That means Digital learning is more effective than classroom training or e-learning.

This is because:

•  it engages our curiosity
We use extraordinary looking characters from another planet in our cutting edge diversity training. Serious research has gone into the development of the characters to see what response we have to them, and how we can help intrigue users and lead them to positive behaviour change in the real world.

•  it encourages active decision making
Our sophisticated role play engines engage users in realistic, natural conversations giving instant feedback on decisions and creating scenarios that help improve performance significantly.

•  it taps into deep human needs for challenge and mastery
We find that users play our games again and again to experiment with different responses, gaining greater skill every time, in a safe skills enhancing environment.

•  it meets simple human desires for novelty and reward
Our fast-paced and subtly changing environments maintain users’ interest, while opportunities for recognition and approval lead them to strive to succeed to attain rewards or recognition for success.

•  it activates more of our brain than traditional learning methods
By creating multi-sensory environments and interaction with other learners we can evoke emotional as well as rational responses to really embed learning. Plus opening up learning environments to a community means that community shares their experiences and passes on knowledge to other users.

•  it breaks learning up in to bite sized chunks
Not only is this a more effective way to learn but small pieces of content can be delivered through all popular mobile devices, giving users anytime learning, anywhere they want it. Essential in today’s fast moving world.

So digital learning has proven instructional design techniques built into them to make them highly effective and by using the full range of tools described above means we can help learners secure the skills they need to help improve their performance.

A psychologist would say: “Digital learning works because it is an affective experience rather than a merely cognitive one.”

The rest of us would say: “It works because it’s fun.”

The Digital Learning Marketplace: … Collective Knowledge Shared
www.DLMplc.com

http://hackathoncentral.com/

Packed house of 60+ hackers at Central Working:

Winter Hackathon 2012 – Coding Session

New Web site can be found at:

www.DLMplc.com

New logo below:

They remember more when they do.

They engage more when they share.

So why is most learning so ineffective and boring?

Christmas is a time when our lives are filled with ‘Games’ and ‘Stories’. Our TV’s are packed with stories, both old and new. We gather together with our families and play games, like Charades. Asking such questions like is it a Book, Movie or TV program. Our DVD’s come now with software that un-package the movie so that is can be played on multiple devices such as iPad’s, iTouches, iPhones, or even on your Laptop. Books can be played on Kindles, iPad’s, and read the old fashioned way on stuff we call ‘paper’.

Whichever medium we experience these Stories there are ‘Seven Basic Plots’;

• Overcoming the Monster
• Rags to Riches
• The Quest
• Voyage and Return
• Comedy
• Tragedy
• Rebirth

One theme that resonated this Christmas was the Hero’s Quest or Hero’s Journey. A hero is faced with a challenge and has to overcome various obstacles to achieve some goal. The focus is the achievement of the goal or objective and this can be in this world or another.

Joseph Campbell’s used the term monomyth, when referring to the hero’s journey and this was described by Campbell in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949).

Campbell held that numerous myths from disparate times and regions share fundamental structures and stages, which he summarized in The Hero with a Thousand Faces:

‘A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.’

This can be broken down into various Acts and Stages as shown by the following diagram:

What was also evident this Christmas was the Quest theme was being used not only in movies, but also in games, as we see below:

Questing in Role-Playing Games: the basic PLOT……

The quest in a role-playing game may begin with setting the objective of finding a lost artefact, or treasure, or some form of knowledge. This artifact might be in several pieces, and to collect the various components results in overcoming one or more challenges by the hero.

By designing the quest around specific challenges, various skills may be taught, improved, honed to excellence etc. thus a carefully designed quest may allow the heroes to shine and show the qualities that make them heroic or just improve them. Basically certain traits can be built into the game structure so that the architect of the game can teach the player or hero to learn through participating in the role-play and thus attain certain skills or improve those skills.

A Few Examples:

The Hobbit, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Indiana Jones series, etc.

The basic quest story can be broken down into a series of stages:

1. The Call – the hero has a calling from someone or due to an event that must result in a long difficult journey to achieve some sort of goal or objective.

2. The Journey – the hero sets off (with or without companions) on a long tortuous journey encountering a series of trials, challenges, or ordeals. For example, battling monsters, dealing with temptations, travelling between two different kinds of opposites or worlds.

As part of the journey there must be capture or daring escape’s, hospitality or life threatening ordeals, helpful advice or cunning trickery, wisdom or guidance and other themes can be built into the storyline to enhance the skills that want to be transferred to the hero.

3. Arrival and Frustration – the hero sees the goal, can almost get there but then new barriers, or obstacles or challenges arise that block him or her from the goal. At this point the hero is often at a low ebb and must dig deep to summon the strength to overcome these last challenges to reach the goal.

4. The Final Ordeals – here the hero has to undergo a series of final tests or challenges, or tasks to prove that they are worthy of the prize, be that an artefact, treasure or knowledge. There may be a guard or monster to the artefact which requires a battle to overcome them to release the prize.

5. The Goal – the hero finally overcomes the last obstacle in a death defying feat and wins the prize, or secures the knowledge, and lives happily ever after…..

So this structure within the role playing game has the capability to be designed in a way to teach certain skills or hone certain characteristics and in a highly effective way:

Which is why we are leading with the following messaging in 2012:

Learning via games:
Engages our curiosity
Encourages active decision making
Taps into deep human needs for challenge and mastery
Connects human desire for novelty and reward
Breaks learning up in to bite sized chunks
Activates more of our brain than traditional learning methods.

This ‘youtube’ video gives a very pictorial representation of the Hero’s Journey from a Joseph Campbell (sort of) perspective using Star Wars, Harry Potter and clips from the Wizard of Oz to highlight key points – the author of this video accentuates 5 key themes:

And one of the most inspiring videos I have seen on how the Digital Evolution will help talent learn anyplace, anywhere, at anytime.

Welcome to the ‘education’ revolution!

The Board of Intellego, the AIM traded digital learning business, is delighted to announce it has entered into a non-binding memorandum of understanding (“MOU”) to acquire an investment in the Digital Learning Marketplace (“DLM”) project from Milamber Limited. There are two phases; development and commercial exploitation.

Development – the DLM is being built as a revolutionary new learning platform intended to allow Corporations, SME businesses, and professionals to access their day-to-day and future learning requirements with the goal of helping them improve their business performance.  The Directors of Intellego believe that the DLM will be the first source of truly personalised learning giving users the ability to create their own focused courses in affordable blocks, built from materials supplied by a diverse range of providers.  It will enable the owners of learning content to trade and monetise their learning assets.  Participants in the project include Pearson Education (19%) and Ashridge Business School (6%).  The DLM is designed to have global appeal, with engaging content available in small “bite-sized” units that are easily accessible, and affordable.

The Consortium partners will (pro rata to their respective interests in the project) receive a £740,272 grant from the UK Government’s Technology Strategy Board (TSB) (“Grant”), such is the importance of digital learning to the future education needs within the UK, to provide funds to help the Company finance the development of the DLM platform. The Consortium partners have agreed to match-fund the Grant giving the project a total investment of £1,498,224.

Commercial exploitation – the DLM is expected to be fully operational in 2013, in the interim there will be limited scale commercial trials and testing.

The proposed arrangements comprise an initial investment of up to £160,000 to secure a majority interest in the project during the two year development stage followed by Intellego’s option to maintain this interest into the exploitation stage.  If for any reason Intellego decides not to exercise the option then Milamber has undertaken to buy-back the Interest from Intellego for an amount equal to Intellego’s investment save for the first payment of £40,000.

Milamber, in which Andy Hasoon is a 21% shareholder, (Intellego’s CEO and Director) owns a 6.86% interest in Intellego (40,000,000 ordinary shares of 0.05p).  Accordingly, the transaction is a Related Party Transaction as defined by the AIM Rules.

The independent Directors of Intellego (being all the Directors with the exception of Andy Hasoon) having consulted with the Company’s Nominated Adviser, consider that the terms of the MOU are fair and reasonable insofar as the Company’s shareholders are concerned.

Angus Forrest, Chairman of Intellego said: “The investment in the DLM is our first major transitory move into being a pure digital learning provider. We are excited by the opportunity, that Andy Hasoon has brought to us, which has the potential to transform Intellego into a global player, and consider that the transaction provides a structured approach for Intellego Shareholders to participate in that opportunity”.

Andy Hasoon, CEO of Intellego said: “As the education market aligns ever more closely with online content and learning, the DLM has created a strategy which will ensure it remains the leader of this exciting and revolutionary step change. We promise our customers around the world that we will provide the most comprehensive, relevant and enjoyable learning experiences available.”

-ends-

For further information:

Intellego Holdings plc

Angus Forrest, Chairman                                                                           020 8977 8744

Andy Hasoon, CEO

Beaumont Cornish Limited (Nomad)                                                     020 7628 3396

Roland Cornish

Rivington Street Corporate Finance (Broker)                                       020 7562 3357

Jon Levinson

Allenby Capital Limited (Broker)                                                             020 3328 5656

Nick Naylor / Nick Athanas

Leander (Financial PR)                                                                             07795 168 157

Christian Taylor-Wilkinson

NOTES TO EDITORS

About Intellego

Intellego is a digital learning company which specialises in the provision of productivity improvement, compliance and process change using training to provide the solutions.  The appropriate solution may be digital learning or instructor lead, or blended learning a mix of the two, to regulated industries and distributed workforces.

At the weekend we hosted our first ever Hackathon in London to promote the development of innovative and commercial mobile Apps.

The Autumn Hackathon was the first in a quarterly series of digital technology hack days bringing together developers from the UK and Europe to pool their talents in a competitive environment to create new applications for the booming mobile and social networking platforms. The event was held from 9am on Saturday morning, with the developers coding through the night to 5pm on Sunday at CentralWorking.com – the trendy, boutique co-working club off Tottenham Court Road in central London. 

A panel of leading entrepreneurs, VCs and developers judged the competition, awarding prizes in two main categories: The most innovative App and the App with the best commercial potential. The winners of the Autumn Hackathon were each awarded prizes of £2,000 of legal services from law firms Irwin Mitchell and ADL Legal, plus Chrome Laptops for each team:

Most Innovative App: an iPhone Lightsabre, designed by Kornel Lesinski using the iPhone’s gyroscopic capabilities and neural network technology, he created a multiplayer lightsabre game that links to a TV.

Best Commercial App: A top ‘Trump’ education game, designed by Team Trump Trifecta that allows different skins to be applied to the card sets to provide multiple game types. Quality tested and played by a five year old, the team proved the game worked and engaged its audience.  

Intellego will be running the Winter Hackathon in late January 2012 which will focus on mobile Apps for the estimated 2 million visitors to the London Olympics next Summer.

Andy Hasoon, CEO of Intellego, commented, “We are delighted to be the lead sponsors of the Hackathon events. Intellego is all about promoting educational development through digital, online and mobile technology, so working with some of Europe’s leading App developers has been an exciting experience for us.”

Judges including leading entrepreneurs & developers awarded prizes including £2000 worth of legal services from a top technology law firm. Entries will be judged on innovation, commercial potential, usefulness & fun factor.

To encourage greater involvement of those in further & higher education, teams are limited to three members but allowed a fourth member who is a full time student.

4 of our Hack Teams

Checking quality of one of our Hacks – it worked!

One of the teams at 9am Sat and at 3pm Sun…..did they move?

The Winners

Kornel Lesinski – aka Hack Winner

- Created a game that reads gyroscope data from iPhone – Creating an iPhone Light Sabre on the TV screen via (http://pornel.net:8000/watch.html)

 - Uses ‘pusher.com’ a websocket api

- Bounced data from iPhone to US to Germany (where his servers are) to US to iPhone

- He created a neural network and had to train his system to recognise moves i.e. Over 400+ moves needed programming so iPhone and Neural Network recognise gestures made with iPhone  

- Works as multiplayer game.

Watch Video! Click here……….. Hackathon Final

Organised by Milverton Wallace for Milamber Digital.